A problem of how to efficiently manage a large quantity of documents, which are prepared in businesses, has been tried and discussed in many situations. In particular, in recent years, since an increase in a capacity and a reduction in cost of a hard disk have advanced and a data compression technology has advanced, documents such as papers are scanned to be converted into electronic data as PDF files, and stored and managed in a form of data files.
In the management of the data files, since some files have meaning concerning contents thereof among the files (e.g., a master contract, a supplemental contract, and a memorandum), it is important find how to associate such a relation to manage the files.
Conventionally, several mechanisms for allowing a user to perform management while visually showing a relation among data files in management of the data files have been provided. For example, in an operating system (OS) such as Windows (registered trademark), folders storing data files are hierarchically displayed according to directory management. Thus, the OS has a mechanism for making it easy to visually understand a relation among the folders to make it possible to display locations where the data files are present.
In addition, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2001-043231 discloses a file management system that has a mechanism for displaying locations where searched files are present in a form of a tree.
Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 9-185660 discloses a file management system that is capable of managing an input file, which is used for generating a specific file, and an output file, which is outputted from the specific file, in association with the specific file and generating a relationship diagram of the files.
However, in the file management system having a mechanism for displaying locations where searched file are present in a form of a tree described in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2001-043231, storage locations where files are present are hierarchically displayed and managed but it is unclear what kind of association the files have.
Concerning the tree display method, when storage locations of a low-order hierarchy (e.g., folders) are included in a storage location of a high-order hierarchy (e.g., a cabinet), “+” is displayed and, when “+” is designated, names of the storage locations of the low-order hierarchy included therein are displayed as a list in the same hierarchy, whereby tree structure display is performed. Thus, the tree display method does not make it possible to display files in association with each other.
Moreover, conventionally, although a result of file search is indicated by tree display, since the tree display itself is generated from information on paths where files are present, it is impossible to generate a tree dynamically to change displayed data.
In the file relationship diagram output method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 9-185660, although it is possible to display files in association with each other, a relationship diagram concerning files in a level above a designated file and files of a level below the designated file is outputted. Therefore, when plural files are managed hierarchically, if it is unknown in which hierarchy a designated file is located, it is impossible to display all related files including the designated file in a form of a tree.
In addition, in another viewpoint, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2001-043231 and Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 9-185660 does not assume a case in which the file management systems are applied to a Web system. Thus, since it is necessary to generate HTML data in order to perform tree structure display, image files of GIF, JPEG, and the like prepared in advance are required to be combined. However, the conventional techniques do not disclose generation of such HTML files for display.